KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 — Bursa Malaysia turned marginally lower at mid-day today, dragged down by profit-taking in selected blue-chips led by financial stocks amid lack of fresh leads.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 0.39 per cent or 6.22 points to 1,570.90 from 1,577.12 at Friday’s close.

The FBM KLCI opened 1.43 points higher at 1,578.55 and moved between 1,570.37 and 1,581.27 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, gainers edged losers 537 to 492, while 374 counters were unchanged, 615 untraded and 22 others suspended.

Trading volume stood at 5.61 billion shares worth RM3.07 billion.

An analyst said so far the benchmark index was not able to break the resistance level of 1,600, despite persistent buying support from the smaller caps and lower liners. The FBM KLCI declined by 0.11 per cent last week to settle at 1,577.12 points.

Meanwhile, Kenanga Research said the week ahead will be filled with a flood of earnings announcements from listed companies, which must release their April to June quarterly report cards by end-August.

Among which, the more keenly awaited results will be from the likes of Kossan Rubber (on Tuesday), CIMB (Wednesday), Genting Bhd, Genting Malaysia, Maybank (both Thursday), and Tenaga (Friday).

In terms of macro-economic data, the external trade statistics for July is due on Friday.

From a technical perspective, the key FBM KLCI is expected to show a negative bias, probably swinging down towards our support lines of 1,550 and 1,510 amid profit-taking activities.

On the chart, a break beneath a downward sloping trendline and its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) line could see the benchmark index plotting lower lows ahead.

"We are keeping our resistance barriers at 1,600 and 1,645, posing as road-blocks to the upside of the market barometre,” the investment bank said in a research note today.

Among heavyweights, Maybank slid four sen to RM7.51, Top Glove eased six sen to RM27.94, Public Bank down 26 sen to RM17.04, Hartalega shed 48 sen to RM17.26, while Tenaga was flat at RM11.00.

Of the actives, Iris improved four sen to 42 sen, and Lambo and PWorth bagged half-a-sen each to 5.5 sen and four sen, respectively.

Hartalega was listed as the top losers, followed by Kossan Rubber which reduced 44 sen to RM15.96 and Panasonic erased 34 sen to RM31.20.

Top gainers, Timberwell and PPB Group rose 14 sen each to 63.5 sen and RM19.58, respectively, and Solution Group gained 13 sen to 60.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 26.59 points to 11,323.49, the FBMT 100 Index was 30.76 points lower at 11,128.48, while the FBM 70 strengthened 11.13 points to 14,747.41.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 9.06 points to 13,420.75, while FBM ACE increased 31.04 points to 10,952.92.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 72.82 points to 12,953.67, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 0.36 of-a-point to 141.91, while the Plantation Index rose 17.30 points to 7,056.96. — Bernama